Saturday, July 4, 2009

Hoping to avoid confusion that arose from a recent home-construction project with Habitat for Humanity, the Monroe County School Board says it will fine-tune the terms of partnerships with Habitat and other organizations by clarifying who is responsible for specific costs.

In May, Habitat finished a home-building project with Marathon High School construction and engineering students. After construction at the high school, the modular home was erected at a private lot in Marathon. It will now be the home of a local teacher, according to Bruce Ferraro, executive director of the Marathon chapter of Habitat.

That project, funded by a Florida Success grant, ended with confusion over which agency -- the school district or Habitat -- was responsible for various expenses.

In a contract between the district and Habitat, the district put up $80,000 in Success grant money for lumber, supplies, hardware, and salaries of instructors and local contractors who mentored students during the project. Habitat was to reimburse the district when the house was completed.

However, it turns out that state law requires the district to return grant money if it is reimbursed from another source. That apparently came as a surprise to school officials, including the School Board.

It is still a sore point for board member Steve Pribramsky, who asked the board Tuesday why the house shouldn't belong to the district.

"If it's our money, why don't we hold the mortgage?" he asked. "It was [built with] money that came from the Monroe County school district."

Pribramsky is hoping a potential loophole will allow the district to have it both ways. Because the Success grant was discontinued statewide, he believes the district might be able to both seek reimbursement and keep the grant money -- because there is no longer a grant program to accept reimbursement.

He has asked attorney Latour Lafferty to look into that possibility.

Board members were unanimous in their desire to undertake future home-building projects with Habitat, but they considered ways they might lower the district's costs, and iron out confusion over reimbursement. For instance, the Habitat contract stipulated the school system would pay for supplies, lumber and hardware, but it remained unclear at the end whether the district would be reimbursed by Habitat for about $20,000 in tools.

Habitat's Ferraro, praising the partnership, assured board members Habitat would pay the construction costs of houses in the future. He said the program was an effective teaching tool.

"I interviewed a number of students, and they are much happier doing something where they see the results," Ferraro said. "One student we gave a scholarship to said he wanted to help his family and friends rehabilitate their houses."

jguerra@keysnews.com